More than 53km of stolen copper cables recovered in Cape Town

Copperheads, the City of Cape Town‘s Metal Theft Unit, has said it recovered more than 53 kilometres of stolen copper cables from the city’s infrastructure over a 6 month period, ending in December last year.

The unit said that it experienced an increase in complaints of metal theft in the Western Cape.

This resulted in 404 operations undertaken by the unit.

According to the City of Cape Town, 227 complaints from the public were received.

From this, 1 260 scrapyards were searched.

“Their investigations resulted in 83 arrests and the recovery of 1 205,51 kilograms of metal, and 53 743,88 metres of stolen cable,” the City confirmed.

Not slowing down

But despite these stepped-up interventions, the unit says the stats over the last six months show no signs of this scourge slowing down.

Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith, told the media, “The increase in arrests and confiscations shows once more the extent of the challenges linked to cable and metal theft.

“The impact on services, the economy and the repairs and maintenance budgets of departments who bear the brunt of the scourge is well documented. And, the load on our metal theft unit, but enforcement services on the whole, is not getting any lighter.”

Changing strategies used by metal thieves

Smith said that what was even more concerning was the fact that the strategies of metal thieves were constantly changing.

“There are new trends every few months, which require counter strategies and a unit that is nimble enough to change direction where needed,” Smith said.

Smith said they were working to map hotspots and were on the hunt for existing or new tech solutions that aid their enforcement efforts in this area.

According to the Economic Sabotage of Critical Infrastructure Forum, the economic damage of copper theft alone has been estimated at more than R45 billion annually.